Prayer is one of those things that is fundamental to following Christ. Most Christians would agree that prayer, along with Bible reading and going to church, is one of the most essential things to living a successful Christian life. The interesting thing is that while it is considered essential, not many people actually do it that often (the same could be said for the other two), and even when people do pray, they often don’t think they are very good at it. I’m one of the latter. Now, I might pray a line or two throughout the day when something enters my mind that I know I need to pray for. Also, I meet with a small group to pray for about an hour each week before my church’s young adults service, and I actually surprise myself at how well I pray out loud. My problem is sitting down and having focused, intentional, personal prayer time with God. I have no problems spending a lot of time reading the Bible, but when it comes to really pouring my heart out to God in a time of concentrated personal worship, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication, I feel that I lack. This really bothers me because I believe that prayer changes circumstances, people (the person praying most of all), events, at sometimes can even change God’s mind and will cause Him to act in a way that He would not of acted if no prayer was prayed otherwise. With this view of the power of prayer, not only is prayer a privilege and a right but also a great responsibility. Therefore, there is no excuse for me to not pray.

I have had knowledge of this problem of prayer in my life for awhile now, so I was excited when the young adults ministry at my church started a three week series on the topic of prayer. The more we studied about it the more I realized that I needed to make a change. I started re-reading two books that have influenced my views of prayer the most, Hearing God by Peter Lord and God of the Possible by Greg Boyd, and picked up Philip Yancey’s Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? These books and the series at church have helped motivate me greatly, and I feel that God is leading me to try the experiment that I’m about to share with you. Some people may think that this is too small but I think it’s a good way to jump-start my prayer life.

The experiment is this: for the next thirty days I’m going to spend at least one hour in concentrated prayer everyday. Through these thirty days I’m going to try different techniques, formulas, and models. Sometimes I will follow the formula I learned in seventh grade called the ACTS model (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication). Other times I will open the Bible and pray the through the Scriptures, mostly the Psalms, but this will not be a time of Bible study. I will also pray the prayers in books such as The Book of Common Prayer. I’ll try these multiple methods to try and determine which I find to be the most helpful for me to maintain a consistent time with God. Some time over the next 30 days I will also try to take a 3 day personal prayer retreat where I leave to go stay somewhere and leave all forms of technology behind and spend all 3 days in prayer, fasting, and Bible study. I will attempt to blog about my experiences as much as possible. Hopefully, this experiment will enhance both my prayer life and yours as well. I challenge you to try this experiment yourself and we can dialogue about what we’re going through together here on the blog.

A staple of socially awkward people is that we’re well-read. Reading is usually an activity best done alone, so we get a lot of it done because we are usually alone. There are pros and cons to this, of course, but that’s not the point of this blog. The point of this blog is just to let you know some books that have seriously helped my faith. This list is by no means exhaustive as there are plenty of books I have yet to read. But of those I have read, I believe these are some that, if you are a Christian, you should definitely check out. (I’m not putting them in any particular order, so don’t think I rank one better than the other).

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

The only “classic” on my list. It’s hard to find any Christian, of any tradition or denomination, say something negative about C.S. Lewis. While Chronicles of Narnia is by far his most famous work, Mere Christianity is still one of the best resources for Christians who need a little help in articulating what they believe. You can buy it at http://www.amazon.com/Mere-Christianity-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652888

Simply Christian by N.T. Wright

Moving on from C.S. Lewis to the man some are calling today’s C.S. Lewis. N.T. Wright is a bishop in the same denomination that Lewis was apart of (The Church of England) and quotes him frequently. Wright uses more theological terms than Lewis does, but his theology his what makes the book so interesting. Wright’s goal is to examine what the early Church, namely the Apostles, believed and compare their beliefs to Christians of today. Along the way, Wright also provides a great theological defense of, as the subtitle states, “why Christianity makes sense.” You can buy this book at http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Simply-Christian-N-T-Wright/?isbn=9780061920622

Know Doubt by John Ortberg

Some non-believers think they can never become a Christian if they have doubts about it. Some Christians, on the other hand, feel like they can never move forward in their faith because of their doubts. While other Christians feel that they can never even mention their doubts without being cast out of the Church. Ortberg, a Presbyterian minister, challenges all of those ideas and even sets forth the idea that doubt is not the enemy of faith, but an essential part of it. You can buy this at http://www.amazon.com/Know-Doubt-Importance-Embracing-Uncertainty/dp/031032503X